ARE YOU CREATIVE? RAP & FIND OUT!

ARE YOU CREATIVE? A SIMPLE EXERCISE TO FIND OUT.
(Short answer cum spoiler, YES, you are!)

People often associate creativity with the arts. Writing, drawing, acting composing, singing, dancing. Understandable. Because inherently they think you're creative only when you 'create' something new or a derivative of something. That view is flawed.

In fact, the biggest deterrent to being creative is believing you're not creative. And to have such a limited definition of creativity only limits you. Creativity is displayed often across functions, industries, categories. And often by people who have practically nothing to do with media, entertainment or the arts. As a tool to solve problems, to invent something or more. And the world needs so much more of that to take on the challenges we face today.

So, at times, some creative thinking, expressive exercises, and experiments can be so liberating. I used to often create cross-functional teams (CFT was a part of lexicon at MTV, and later even YRF) comprising people from sales, finance, production with promos, shows, marketing to brainstorm on everything from new content ideas to solving business problems, new business opportunities. And the contribution of the most unexpected people came in the most surprising ways. If nothing else, they got to know each other better and had some fun.

One smaller exercise like that I often do is also a song/ rap writing workshop. The process is quite simple and really fun. I followed this exact same process for a session like this with my son Risshan. Now Rissh is special needs, on the autism spectrum, so expressive language is usually a challenge. But this worked like magic. The pizza example I used is all him! 

Here's how it flows...
1. Pick a topic to rap about (e.g.: Food, your favorite dish, pizza)

2. Generate words that come to mind when you think of that word (e.g.: Yummy, Cheese, Toppings, Khaana)

3. Write words that rhyme with these against it (e.g.: Tummy, Please, Gaana)

4. Form short sentences, phrases with them (e.g.: Gimme extra cheese, hurry up please!)

5. Search a free rap instrumental beat/ track (there are tons on YouTube, slow, fast, gangsta, funny... you can go from Baba Sehgal vibe to Eminem on it, I suggest starting out with a slow flow)

6. Rap out the words on the track (a couple of iterations are enough to get the meter, rhythm... and then you can add some keeda lines too to polish it)

7. Take it a step further, shoot a video of yourself rapping off the phone and add in some of the keywords as supers, looks very gangsta (most smartphones can do this or download any basic app, e.g.: PowerDirector)

And you have an original rap song ready of the newest hip-hopper in town... MC (insert your name here)!

Here's a link to the end result...
Risshan's "I Love Pizza Rap".
https://youtu.be/c_gs_UMGcP0

He got a shout out from Dominos UK on Twitter!

So, try it. For yourself, your team, your kids, your family. It's liberating and mad fun. 

And don't let anyone ever tell you, you're not creative. Least of all, yourself! 

How India's 1st Transgender Band helped make the world a more welcoming place: 6-Pack Band, An Isspeshal Case Study

Background & Brief: 

Unilever’s Brooke Bond Red Label Tea targets SEC BC consumers, positioned on a theme of bringing people closer with tea as a lubricant. Their campaign objectives were to create real everyday stories of warmth & togetherness that stand out and break social barriers. Focused as a priority on West/ North. And make a low-interest category [packaged tea] more engaging.

Our Strategy & Plan: 

Tap into a very topical, relevant global theme of LGBT issues [Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox in Orange Is the New Black, Obama being on LGBT mag cover, Indian Supreme Court verdict recognizing the 3rd Gender, Transparent at Emmies, Eddie Redmayne Danish Girl… were all things buzzing in pop culture in 2015. Tap into all these with music, dance & storytelling. 

And create India & [possibly] the World’s 1st Transgender Band with 6 members of the ‘hijra’ community, with 6 songs, 6 music videos. Amplify with great music, massive collaborations, and PR/ digital. 

Content & Promotions: 

We launched with a cover of Intnl. chartbuster Pharrell William’s ‘Happy’ with Anushka Sharma voice-over. Intentional, to get on to the international

radar. And followed up with an original ‘Sab Rab De Bande [the Chai song] with Sonu Nigam a high energy rap section asking people to chill out over a cup of tea. Link: https://youtu.be/msbZUmaUBuI

Followed collaborations with legend Asha Bhosle & granddaughter; superstar Hrithik Roshan, buzz videos with Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Kapoor; song for YRF’s Sultan featuring Salman Khan to widen reach. Songs in a range of English, Hindi, Marathi with genres spread across uptempo dance to soft Sufi, rap, folk, qawwali and even Stomp to deepen impact. Music videos innovated too from telling their real-life stories, mixed-media animation and integrated the brand in lyrics, video narrative and even used packs to compose music! Amplified by heavy PR and digital push with global celebrities sharing, tweeting. Embedding of songs into radio, music channels, entire telecom ecosystem. Presence at music & film awards shows and more. 

Communication Impact:

The content reached 37+ mn views [a big deal in the pre-Jio days!] Generating INR 150+ mn worth of PR besides a massive social media buzz, PR pick up in mainline, digital, English & regional press – both local, international, consumer & business media… capturing brand essence in messaging. 

The campaign picked up India’s 1st Cannes Grand Prix Glass Lion [among world’s most prestigious creative awards], was in the Top 5 honorees in the world at the 2016 Webby’s. 9 trophies at the 2016 Emvies [Asia’s leading media effectiveness awards], 4 at the Goafest [India’s most prestigious advertising awards], Coverage in Vice’s Gaycation with Ellen Page [Juno], Posts by Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook!

Brand Impact:

84% viewers associated content with the brand. 64% consumers perceived brand makes the world a more welcoming place after this. Brand penetration up 400+ basis points. Brooke Bond Red Label grew 1.3x Vs. the packaged tea category.

But the most powerful result was when Komal, one of the band members received a call from someone after 11 years inviting her over for a meal. This was her dad who had disowned her when she came out from being Kamlesh to accepting her own sexual identity/ orientation and preference. No revenue, award, reward can ever match up to the impact of that. Because that's when content doesn't just deliver impact and reach, but it also delivers meaning!

#21DayChallenge Whatever it takes

Never before have we as a race faced something of this nature, at this scale, globally, it seems straight out of one of those Roland Emmerich/ Jerry Bruckheimer Disaster or Superhero movies where some aliens come and attack mankind. And then a mix of heroes – ordinary and extraordinary rise to the occasion and save their loved ones, themselves and the world. The stakes are always personal in such films – be it a child, a partner, or past that has to saved, salvaged. Which is what makes it relatable, compelling and fun.

Clearly, this is one such situation. The world is in danger. It’s real. And it’s here. It’s not a distant, decades away scenario. The impact is visible for all – so while your maid may not know about Greta Thunberg and your driver may not care about melting polar ice caps, he sure as hell can see this affecting him right now. The stakes are very personal for all of us. There are some extraordinary heroes, our medical teams, the frontline soldiers who are out there battling this. And some ‘regular’ folks who are also rising to the occasion – be it making chai and providing all the liftmen/ guards, or donating free meals for daily wage laborers.

It’s been an incredible reminder to all of us to focus on the essentials…

·       Spend time with the people essential in your life

·       Spend money on the basic essentials [stocking up on food, medication Vs. on general extravagance]

·       Spend effort on the essential things [taking care of yourself, your loved ones, cooking, cleaning yourself in the absence of staff, learning/ teaching new things given there’s mandatory home school for our kids and WFH for us]

There’s a theory that it takes 21 days to form/ make/ break a habit. While this may or may not be true, but doing/ stopping something consistently for 21 days straight will certainly put you on that path. So, this 21-day lockdown has certainly given us all a never-before opportunity to do/ try a few things we may have only hoped to do but never attempted. Now, we may all have multiple excuses, erm, reasons including the 5 Cs to not be able to do this including…

·       Cooking [no staff]

·       Cleaning [my OCD]

·       Classes Online [no school for my son]

·       Conference Calls, Zoom & otherwise [God bless these clients!]

·       Corona se bachna [essentially rubbish WhatsApp forwards]

But really if we have the bandwidth to take part in some of those inane social media challenges including Kiki, Kookoo, Sarees, Books and whatnot, yaar, yeh 21-day challenge toh banta hai. The difference being you challenge yourself. It could be anything among the essentials that matter…

·       Self-improvement [Physical, Mental, Spiritual, Professional, Personal]

·       Relationship [Family, Friends – Especially important in these times of Social Distancing]

So, pin down your own 21-day. There are so many tools, online courses, tutorials, ideas online. Carve out an hour in a day, e.g.

·       10-20-30 mins. [10 mins gratitude & journaling, 20 mins meditation, 30 mins exercise] or

·       30-30 [30 mins reading, 30 mins online course] or

·       60 [straight up dedicated 1 hour to 1 thing, painting, writing, dancing, chatting with your wife, whatever]

It takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in a field but only 20 hours to get good at something. Check out this TedTALK by Josh Kaufmann [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY], it’s based on his bestseller book on Fast Learning where he field-tests, hacks and cracks some really diverse skills [programming a web application, windsurfing, the world’s oldest and most complex board game and playing the ukulele!] See his talk, it’s quite fun, he plays 100 pop songs by learning 4 simple chords on the Uke [from My Heart Will Go On to Gangnam Style!]

He talks about 20 hours. You’ve got 21.

Been wanting to learn an instrument? Take an online course on screenwriting? A digital marketing refresher? Carrom with dad? Sketching with son? Poetry by yourself? Cooking for the Mrs.? Calling up that old college bud? Reading the book you bought and that’s been lying on your bedside table for 21 months? Losing that belly? Quit smoking? Reduce screen time? Write a blog?

What are you waiting for? Save yourself, save the world, let's win this war. Drop a comment on what you’re planning. Have fun. And let’s do this. As the Avengers put it, “Whatever it takes!”

How India's 1st Brand Feature Film helped rev' up Maruti Suzuki: #MereDadKiMaruti - An Isspeshal #CaseStudy

Background: Maruti Suzuki launching India's 1st compact SUV
India's leading auto manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki was launching something that would disrupt the auto market. A compact SUV called the Ertiga. A 7 seater, at a killer price and signature Maruti service support, etc. The mother brand stood for value-for-money and in a very competitive auto market which was seeing a spate of launches [2012-13], Maruti needed to get young, get cool and get share of mind fast given the younger skew of target consumers now.


The Plan: Hijack a Bollywood Feature Film!
Internationally, there had been a lot of films themed around cars, but nothing in India. Barring a Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Taarzan the Wonder Car... no Herbie, no Bumblebee. And while placements of cars may have happened, nothing at scale that created impact had been done. There entered this incredible opportunity of a full-fledged feature film!


Mere Dad ki Maruti
The Youth Films division of Yash Raj Films, Y-Films was developing a feature around a lost car. Originally Mere Dad ki Car, the opportunity for placement was seamless. While the other contenders included Mercedes - which had too many approval loops from international, there were the media innovation mavericks at Volkswagen with Polo [the film would have been Mere Papa ki Polo], but Maruti finally outbid them all and also presented the best thematic fit given how the brand has been almost generic to the category of first/ small cars. Both a pro and a con. While the concern was that this behemoth may take forever to make a decision due to its systems, protocols, the company moved surprisingly fast. Given a decision of this magnitude, nature especially. There were multiple meetings, pitches, but eventually, they fully bought into the vision and decided to punt on it. Full marks to their Media Director/ Marketing Lead, Sunila Dhar, and then COO Marketing & Sales, Mayank Pareek who championed and short-circuited this within their system to make it happen. 

The Placement & Integrations

The film told the story of a boy, who sneaks out his stingy dad's fancy new Maruti Suzuki Ertiga to impress the college hottie. And then loses the car! The car is a gift for his sister who's about to get married in 4 days which ups the personal stakes. And along the way he encounters strange characters galore; from a gang of car thieves, a don, a car rental run by geriatric jatts, an enthusiastic salesman, crazy relatives and more. The Ertiga made its way into multiple scenes, songs, dialogues, dramatic plot points. And Maruti made its way into the title besides the theme and the core fabric of the film itself. Without for a moment feeling that it's a long advertisement, given how smartly it was done. For most marketers, consumers, it was a revelation that the film was funded by Maruti to a large extent.

The fun and loveable family was shown as being hardcore Maruti loyalists, establishing the strong emotional connect. The Ertiga was placed as the object of desire for the young leads making it aspirational and cool. With a soundtrack that featured everyone from Honey Singh & Mika, to Panjabi MC and Diljit Dosanjh, the songs featured the car in lyrics and videos. A hilarious scene at the showroom with a test drive brought in all the key features so seamlessly that it even surprised the makers! And a shocker of a climax where multiple Marutis make an entry, made it extremely memorable.

The Reach: 100 million+ eyeballs and counting!
The film opened in 45+ cities [which covered all of the Ertiga's priority markets] across 700+ screens. It premiered with multiple repeats across the Sony TV Network on Sony, Sab, Set Max besides DTH, in-flight, digital, PPV. In fact, it became pretty much the Jurassic Park of Star Movies/ Nayak of SetMax running every week on the network adding up to massive reach. The 360-degree marketing campaign for the film delivered over 24,000 spots on TV. Songs featuring the car in the lyrics and video ran on 20+ music channels besides playing out in ganpati visarjans, at performances in award shows and through integrations across mainstream GEC shows, awards, radio, events, digital, PR continued as part of the build-up to the release. Partner brands came in to further promote the film and in turn the brand, including Red Bull with a special song/ video by Nucleya, P&G's Car Freshener AmbiPur with TV promos, Integriti apparel with promotions on ground at stores and on TV. Radio Mirchi flipped their traffic updates by Maruti to have the title song of the film as its sting. And social media had memes, dad-son gifs, gags doing the rounds. Car loan companies were using the film's title to sell their policies!

Dheyr Saara PR aur Pyaar
The earned media on the film was enormous. There was media coverage across dailies nationally, with 100% carriage of the brand name - talking about the performances, the humor, the songs, the actors and the car - clocking upwards of INR 100 million+. There were reviews, of the film, the music and the film made its way into every year end list of Top 10 films to watch. 


Rumors of a sequel on the release of the film further fuelled stories. The coverage continued for weeks pre and post release. And later when the marketing tie-in was revealed, the business media/ pink papers went into overdrive covering the one of a kind innovation! 


A year into the release, the CEO of Infosys, Vishal Sikka was featured on the front page of Economic Times talking about how his favorite film that he'd watched 3 to 4 times with his son was Mere Dad ki Maruti!

Business Impact: 30% spike in test drives!
The most powerful barometer in the auto business for evaluating marketing campaigns, is test drives. Whether it converted to footfalls to showrooms, did people check out the car physically? Mere Dad ki Maruti drove up test drives for the Ertiga by 30%, outstripping even Maruti's own expectations. This could be directly attributed to the film as there was no other thematic advertising running around the promotional and release window of the feature film. There were huge lifts in likability for the Ertiga, and in spontaneous recall for 3 of the key features for the car that Maruti wanted to plug as differentiators. The trade and showrooms were buzzing. And the market was on fire wondering how was this done. With every media agency talking about how to replicate this for their client. 30-second TVCs suddenly felt so last season. 

Final Takeaways...

1. Innovate or Die... sounds like a cliche, but so critical today. Not for success, but survival. Irrespective of how jaded your category maybe. We often hear in companies/ or categories like financial services which have lot of restrictions, "Humaare yahaan aise nahi hota!" #Suicidal. What worked is that no one saw this coming, especially from a brand like Maruti [considered conservative] and at this scale. 
2. Trust your creative partners... once you've outlined your objectives, done a deep orientation with your team and are buying into the vision with the right creative partners, then go all in! Don't play watchdog. Tricky especially given the long tail for a feature - 6 months minimum Vs. a 30 second TVC that would turn around in 4 weeks tops. Monitor but don't breathe down their neck. Give them the elbow room to do what they do best and that they need to do to deliver back to you!
3. Back it up... if you've sponsored an IPL team, you need to leverage that association/ spend as much talking about it/ promoting it as you did on the sponsorship itself. Else it will be a jungle mein mor wala situation. Maruti didn't pull it's punches. They leveraged their massive service, retail network to promote both the film and the car. Creating renewed excitement. CDs went in as part of welcome kits, ticket giveaways for sales, consumers, contests. Pulling out existing airtime on TV, radio and more came into the mix.

The Ertiga became one of the most talked about car launches in the industry for a long time. And certainly a very isspeshal case study. 

Last but not least... call us, if you wish to create a case study of your own. We're on isspeshalstratcon@gmail.com. 

How Balls of Steel helped sell Manchurian Balls! #Chings #DesiChinese #RanveerChing - Isspeshal Case Study

Background: Taking on the Giants!
Cinema & Cuisine connect our country. They're both a critical part of our culture. Capital Foods' brand Ching's Secret stands for Desi Chinese and has products like Masalas, Soups, Sauces, and Noodles. It competes with the likes of Nestle [Maggi] and other large players including ITC [Yippee], Unilever [Knorr], Top Ramen. Ching's was a local player with ambitions to go national.

The Challenge: Mummy Bhookh Lagi!
Ching's biggest challenge was saliency/ awareness. Besides, category communication was stuck with the tropes of hungry kid and mom whipping up a meal in [2] minutes. There were dragons, geishas and even SRK selling Chinese noodles! Breaking the clutter of cliches was a key task.

The Plan: Maa ki Maa ki aankh!
Cuisine changes every 5kms in India, but Bollywood & Desi Chinese unite. We consciously decided to BURN the category templates. The client was brave enough to BYPASS a traditional advertising agency [that's often stuck in the 'format' with a 30-sec TVC or a hoarding layout, this was 2014.] We decided to KILL the mother. We IGNORED the 30-sec TVC format. AVOIDED the product window. And DIDN'T have the celebrity hold the pack, punch the tagline. And we consciously CHOSE A MAVERICK celebrity. 

Enter Mr. Ranveer Singh & Team
This was before Ram Leela, Bajirao, anything major had happened. Ranveer had had no major hits after his smashing debut and the only brand he endorsed at that stage was Durex condoms. But his attitude was a slam-dunk fit that the brand was seeking to reflect. Anything but, "Mere kaale ghaney baalon ka raaz!"

We brought in a really exciting creative team to create communication that celebrated the brand. An A-list Bollywood crew helped create the smokescreen that there was actually a film in the pipeline. Shaad Ali to direct, Gulzar for lyrics, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for music, Ganesh Acharya to choreograph and Yash Raj Films digital to distribute among others. We embedded the brand so seamlessly into the content that the lines between brand, entertainment, and talent completely blurred.

Singh is Ching

We designed a thumping, chart-busting song and music video centered around a colorful character called 'Ranveer Ching'. The brand name was part of the key hook line and chorus. And the video was young, high-energy, spicy, exciting AF and a massive clutter-breaker. "My Name is Ranveer Ching".

Category ki Maa-Behen
Designed & deployed like a movie promo. Teasers, first look posters, trailers, song promos. Populated across the entire digital eco-system with telcos, music on web. Ranveer's personal social media handle switched to Ranveer Ching! 

Trade on Fire!
Sales teams were buzzing, retail was frothing at the mouth. Massive audio streams, downloads, crazy rotations, spins across 17+ music channels, radio stations ensured. And the campaign generated PR worth almost 100 million. 

Quotes, Priya Chanda, GroupM Director on Knorr, "#mynameisranveerching is truly the best marketing campaign of the year!". Manita Panwani, GM Marketing, McDonald's, "Incredible campaign, can it be replicated for McD's, how the hell was it done?" Ameya Sule, Business Director, GroupM ESP, "Ching's is a total clutter-breaker, content integration done so smartly Vs. the classic 30-sec TVC." Amar Thomas, CMO, Blackberry, "Fantastic innovation, put Ching's on the map... when does the movie come out?"

Business Impact
Distribution reach jumped 4x from 70k stores in Aug 2014 to 280k stores by Dec 2015. The newly launched Rs. 10 soup range took off like a rocket, Knorr launched 'Buy 2, Get 1 Free' on-pack promotion! Ching's soup became No. #1 in Maharashtra and Gujarat. And most importantly, gained MASSIVE SHARE OF MIND.

Upping the Game: Gaane ke baad Phillum!

The brand had managed to create awareness, but now it was time to create and take ownership of a cuisine block, 'Desi Chinese'. Go wider nationally and dig deeper into the South. And further juice this hugely successful campaign and character of Ranveer Ching. 

So we decided to go the whole hog. And produce a mainstream BLOCKBUSTER mini-movie. In came, Mr. Masala, Rohit Shetty himself. Strategically, we chose Tamannah and Pradeep [who played Ghajini], both very popular names down south.


Ranveer Ching Returns

Rohit helped design an insane dystopian Mad Max meets Bollywood world struck by hunger that could only be saved by a Desi Chinese Warrior named Ranveer Ching. Full of seetis, high-octane action with trademark Rohit Shetty cars flying, blowing up, dhamaal dialogues, mazedaar song & dance. The original track was remixed by DJ Chetas returning like a signature tune.

The film titled 'Ranveer Ching Returns' was premiered like a movie on a Friday at a single screen with media, trade, and consumers with full-on bells and whistles. People couldn't believe the spectacle. Clocking 11mn + views in a week [this was 2016, pre-Jio days, and totally organic!], the ancillary content raked up 5mn + views. The campaign front-paged on dailies, entertainment, and business media. Taran Adarsh, Komal Nahta, Anupama Chopra, Rajeev Masand were reviewing a TVC!

Business Impact continued to Grow!

Leaders from Unilever and the Industry to Amitabh Bachchan were raving about it on social media. Sony TV ran promos to promote the premiere of the ad on their channel! There was a 72% lift in ad recall, 452% jump in brand interest [this was unprecedented in the category], 1000% lift in search across markets. Massive impact in target markets - especially Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana. 

The masala business grew by 45% by the sheer momentum of trade and sales force. Distributors from small towns in UP, Bihar & Jharkhand started queuing up. The export order book grew by over 100%. The topline more than tripled in that window over 3 years.

Plus Ranveer as Maa Ching got seeded for carry forward into recipe videos, cut downs and more.

Captain Ching Rises

We created a further follow-up for Ching's Schezwan Chutney - a spicy AF sauce - as another mad spin, this time with Bollywood director Ali Abbaz Zafar. An insane sci-fi ad film, the film took off on the superhero genre with Captain Ching who had the ability to fly courtesy the fire from his bum that came out propelling him upwards after eating Ching's Schezwan Chutney. With a tagline that screamed, "Chutney nahi, rocket hai rocket!" This was another clutter-breaker that had the market shaken up. 

Many people have tried the song/ music video routine, as also the mini-movie, but no one has been able to pull it off with as much style and impact as Ching's for sure. 

Final Takeaways...

1. The riskiest thing you can do today is to play safe... you have to give it to the Capital Foods, MD, Ajay Gupta for having Balls of Steel to take this kind of an audacious risk!
2. Set and have clear expectations... clarity of brief is essential [sharpness, first one, "create awareness"/ second, "create cuisine block"/ third, "launch spicy chutney as no one can"]
3. Don't work with idiots... team up with the best, they're worth the money spent for a reason
4. Then trust them and back the F*** OFF! Clients often make the mistake [especially some brand/ media managers] who hire an expert and then tell him/ her what to do! Bhai tum khud kar lo phir!
5. Don't be half-assed... go all in. 
6. Be patient... content DOES NOT directly drive sales BUT content builds relationships, relationships build trust and trust drives revenue... eventually. I have seen that across a host of categories, through a variety of content-led marketing solutions that I have worked on [and will share more case studies soon about the same with tangible numbers]
7. Don't be afraid of failure... but also be prepared for success. How to juice, amplify, extend across platforms, to the team internally, to monetize and to build on. Often people are caught as unaware with success as they are with something not working... 

And last but not least... call us, if you wish to create a case study of your own. We're on isspeshalstratcon@gmail.com.

Bikes. Bangs. Bonds. How I almost lost a leg, but found a friend.

29th March 1996. 22 years to the day and time when I had a near fatal motorcycle accident almost losing a leg and an eye. Besides being out of action nearly 6 months. When doctors said I'd never be able to walk straight, squat or sit cross legged. 

Brings back memories of how my then girlfriend, now wife Shital Mehta still hung in there, didn't give up on me or dump me and would come to see me at the hospital in between her CA exams. How my dad took a break from work for a few months to see me through multiple surgeries. How my mom told the doctor he's an idiot and told him I'm gonna run, forget walk, out of the hospital. How my colleague and brother Azhar Shamim covered for me at work (back at SSC&B Lintas) and ensured I wasn't missed - I know that must have been hard. How my pal and brother from a different mother Jehil Thakkar watched out for my parents, aunt, Shital when news of the accident first broke and of course got me a fresh chaddar as the gandus at the public hospital [Topiwala Nair Medical College - full topi man!] I had to check in to as it was a hit & run police case insisted on stripping me and keeping me nanga in my chads there - thank God there were no camphones then else he'd probably have invented Instagram just to upload my pic. With a Valencia filter. How my haraami friend Sandeep Jain cried cause he had just relocated to the US and couldn't be here.

Me with my sexy leg, Shekhar in the white pyjamas with his son who's now a laywer, daughter and wife Sujata.

And how all the prayers, best wishes, bad jokes - including ghastly accident stories they insisted on telling me - yeah Chintamani Agashe that was you - and love of some of my closest friends Siddharth Mehta Anand Nemani Aditya Vikram Somani Suresh Chablani, Vivek Kothari & Dharmangi Sonawala's brother Ashish among others got me through and back. How a random stranger - Shekhar - who had stopped to pee decided to help me off the road (though I'm not sure if he'd washed his hands first) unlike regular passersby who probably wouldn't want any part of this mess. We are still in touch and great family friends. He's in the white pyjamas in this picture, runs a flour mill at Napean Sea Road and still has the happiest smile ever when you meet him.

We got the number of the car and tracked the owner down but never did manage to get anything out of that. And it's cool. I've made peace with that, forgiven him as he probably has erectile dysfunction anyway due to bad karma - his bike's never getting outta neutral!

I can squat, sit cross-legged but I still can't run - but that's out of choice.
And now I'm not allowed on a bike - that's out of Shital 's choice.
I have a really cool scar above my eye - that is a great conversation starter when I can do my Heath Ledger/ Joker imitation - you know how I got this?

But the eye, the leg and the love for life, friends, family and the love of my life - my wife - are still intact.

Ride on!

Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.

December 22, 2017

Dear Indira,

Many people have good intentions but very few people actually follow those through with great actions. And, unfortunately, without action, good intentions just remain those. A thought in the mind, an unsent draft of an email, an unfinished PowerPoint presentation on the hard disk. So when I get a chance to meet people who actually walk the talk, it’s not only very inspiring but also very very fulfilling.

I’d first heard about you through a very dear friend, Sudhir who mentioned what you yourself had gone through. So this was a parent, with first-hand experience wanting to give back or set up something so that other special needs parents don’t have to go through what you initially had to go through. Or get a shot at the right support and care for their kids. I still remember that first orientation session in Fort at your office, the video you played with Yuvraj. What caught me was not just the investment & infrastructure that you were putting in behind setting up The Gateway School of Mumbai, but the passion with which you were approaching it. You pretty much had me at ‘hello’ then. But then to see that vision, dream translate from an idea and good intention from sorting the permissions with the BMC, the razing and building of walls to the hiring of the right teams, their training and more… I’ve been lucky to see that come alive brick by brick.

I’ve been fortunate to get a chance to see that up close thanks to my son, Rishaan, and be a small part of that journey. I’ve seen not just the school & my son grow but also see your vision get bigger and stronger. And see that passion transferred to each and every person who’s a part of the Gateway family. Right from the heads of school and teachers to the help that works as part of the team.

I can see how & why enthusiasm is something that can never be taught but only caught – and how contagious that is when I see you on every annual day, art exhibition or the smallest celebrations looking into the smaller details. At the same time, building such an able and passionate team that lives the same values. I love the fact that no kid is ever turned away on account of not being able to afford the fees. I love the approach the school has of no kid left behind, and the genuine effort & interest that everyone has. In every child. That’s what makes this school special. Not just because it’s a special needs school. In fact, I wish I had got a chance to go to a school like Gateway.

Now before I embarrass you any further, I will stop and just say thanks for continuing to inspire, to show us all that it’s always better to choose hope over cynicism. To show us that you are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. That the distance between your dreams and reality can only be bridged by action.

And that life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.

Wish you a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year and may you continue to dance that dance and have loads more people join you on the dance floor J

Loads and loads of love,

Ashish Patil

[Rishaan’s dad]